^ci' 



THE UNION. 






A DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED IN 

THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

AT THE CAPITOL IN FRANKFORT, KY., 
DECEMBER 19, 1859. 

BY 

The Rev. JAMES CRAIK, D.D. 



LOUISVILLE, KY. 

MORTON & GRISWOLD, PRINTERS. 

1860. 



f 



THE UNION. 

NATIOML AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY 

ALIKE ESSENTIAL TO 

AMERICAN LIBERTY. 
A DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED IN 

THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

AT THE CAPITOL IN FRANKFORT, KY., 
DECEMBER 19, 1859. 

BT 

The Rev. JAMES CRAIK, D.D. 



LOUISVILLE, KY: 

MORTON & GR IS WOLD, PRINTKKS. 

18 60. 






61503 
(05 



I 



\ 



FuANKFOiiT, February S3, 1800- 



Rev. James Craik, D. D., 

Louisville, Ky : 

Dear Sir— At this particular period of our history, when the thoughtless Lave 
been raising the mad cry for disunion, the true friends of our beloved country feel 
called upon to do all in their power to quiet the spirit of insubordination and strife, 
and to perpetuate our inestimable privileges once purchased for us by the blood of 
our fathers. 

Believing that the able lecture which you recently delivered in the Capitol, at the 
solicitation of prominent citizens of the State without regard to political distinc- 
tions, will prove a timely publication to be scattered broadcast through tlie land, we 
i-espectfully solicit a copy for the press. 

With sentiments of high regard and esteem. 

Your obedient servants, 



THOS. S. GRUNpiJ, , j^ 
JOHN G. LYON, 
JNO. L. IRVAN, -> J ^ 
G. AV. LEWIS, 

"w. II. m'srayer, 

JAS. E. GIBSON, 
TIIOS. P. PORTER, 
JAMES m'kEE, 
HARRISON THOMSON, 
JOHN M. JOHNSON, 
C. J. WALTON, 
T. T. ALEXANDER, 
GEO. DENNY, 
A, P. GROVER, 
JOHN A. PRALL, 
S, E. DE HAVEN, 
EWD, II. TAYLOR, 



SAMUEL IIAYCRAFT, 
L. W. ANDREWS, 
J. B. BRUNER, 
HENRY M. RUST, 
CYRENIUS AVAIT, 
R0BE;RT E. GLENN, 
W. C. GILLISS, 
JOHN F. FISK, 
S. H. BOLES, 
C. D. PENNEBAKER, 
C. CHAMBERS, 
V. P. ARMSTRONG, 
JOHN S. RATCLIFF, 
n. TAYLOR, 
TIIOS. PAGE, 
IL WING ATE, 
ROBERT R, TAYLOR, 



B, MAGOFFIN. 



THE UNION. 



I COME before you this evening the humble advocate of the 
American Constitution, and of American liberty and happiness 
inseparably bound up in that Constitution. 

By the American Constitution I do not mean the Federal 
Government, but the complex system formed by that Govern- 
ment and the several State Governments in their due place and 
connection. 

I come to attempt to show you why you should cherish this 
system as, next to Christianity, the most precious of the gifts of 
God to any people. I hope to prove to you that every man in 
this house, and every man in this country, should swear to pre- 
serve these institutions : and, as the temporal sanction of that 
oath, should pledge, as our fathers once did on an issue not more 
sacred, their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. 

As an intelligent people, placed in trust by Almighty God 
with the most glorious heritage ever bestowed upon men, it is 
our imperative duty to study well the principles of the govern- 
ment under which we live ; and to look from time to time with 
earnest scrutiny at the working and progress and condition of 
those principles, and of the institutions founded upon them. 

Society and government cannot work themselves in an invari- 
able order, as the animal, vegetable, and inorganic systems of 
creation seem to do, by virtue of physiological and mechanical 
forces once for all applied. Society and government are subject 
to all the various and changing conditions of that wondrously 
complex being, fi-ee, intelligent, aspiring, and corrupt, who bears 



6 THE UNION. 

in every lineament of liis character the impress of the truth that 
he was created in the image of God, and that he has sadly fallen 
from that image. 

Care, labor, watchfulness, diligent inquiry, constant effort, 
opposition to evil, struggle for the good, are the essential condi- 
tions of man's nature, and of the well-being of all that belongs 
to him or proceeds from him. These conditions attach with espe- 
cial force to society and to government, which constantly tend to 
corruption, hideous and destructive, unless preserved in purity 
by the faithful application of these essential conditions of all 
human good. The merchant who imagines that his business 
will work itself, and leaves it to do so, will not be long in find- 
ing himself gazetted as a bankrupt. The man who undertakes 
to live without any struggle against the evil tendencies of his 
nature, but blindly follows the leadings of each passing impulse, 
will inevitably become a monster of depravity in that form of 
evil to which his nature may happen to be most inclined. So, 
for a people to lose all knowledge, and to abandon all care of the 
principles that are at the foundation of society and government, 
is to bring upon themselves oppression, calamity, and degrada- 
tion, commensurate with the blessings they have forfeited by 
their negligence and folly. 

I do not now refer to the subjects of ordinary legislation, and 
of political controversy. To these every people possessing the 
slightest modicum of freedom are sufficiently attentive. And 
from the latter of these especially the Christian teachers of a 
country should religiously abstain. But I refer to those funda- 
mental principles which are the supports of social order, and of 
the government which protects all alike in the enjoyment of all 
that is dear and valuable to man. I am here this evenine; be- 
cause some of those fundamental principles — the philosophy of 
our American Constitution — do not seem to have been fully 
recognized by many of our later statesmen and constitutional 
lawyers, ibid yet a fanfiliarity with this philosophy, with the 



THE UNION. t 

rationale of the system we have to administer, is requisite to its 
right administration, especially in times when the system is 
exposed to a peculiar pressure and trial of its quality. Bear 
with me, then, while we look together at the reasons which make 
this complicated government of ours so important to the preser- 
vation of liberty here, and to the vindication o£ liberty in all the 
world. 

That the Almighty Disposer of human events has called the 
people of this country to a great work, and to a glorious concur- 
rence with Him in the progi'essive elevation of mankind, is mani- 
fest from many circumstances of our national history. 

The recent subjection of a pure and virgin continent to the 
sway of that Teutonic race which had already proved itself to 
be before and above all other races for perseverance, endurance, 
indomitable energy, the spirit of adventure, and strong common- 
sense, as distinguished from genius ; the peculiar political, civil, 
social, and religious education, in the parent country, of that 
branch of this strong stock which was first engaged in the colo- 
nization of America: the hardships, privations, and incessant 
struggles by which a wild and rugged country, claimed by the 
fiercest savages in the w^orld, was slowly and gradually subdued, 
thus adding force and intensity to aU the national characteristics : 
the gradual commingling with this original population, of the 
best blood of Europe, driven hither by persecution, or allured 
by the spmt of adventure and the pursuit of fortune : the won- 
drously felicitous situation of the continent given to the race so 
admirably and variously trained, that contment extending from 
ocean to ocean, in equal communication with the earliest and 
latest seats of empire and civilization : all these facts conspu-e 
to show that God has called us to a station high above all peo- 
ple in working out His purposes of good-will to men. 

The national character which, by a long course of Providen- 
tial training, God had impressed upon the people of this country, 
as the meet preparation for a great and glorious mission, is beau- 



S T U E U N I N . 

tifullj presented to us in its highest perfection, and in its sublime 
ideal, by that man whom we justly call the Father of his coun- 
try. AVashington stands alone, isolated, unmatched and unpar- 
alleled, among the heroes and mightiest men of ancient and 
modern history in the old world. The greatness of that crowd 
and of this man have no points of similitude, and present no ele- 
ments of comparison. But among his countrymen and compa- 
triots Washington was not alone or singular. He was, indeed, 
a head and shoulders above the rest, but he was like them all. 
He was but the perfect type, the accomplished model, of that 
national character which God had been formincr for the accora- 
plishment of His designs of beneficence to man. Washington 
was the full development, the noble standard, of an American 
gentleman, citizen, soldier, statesman. Christian. His generous 
ambition was to illustrate and show forth in its completeness, 
each one of these characteristics of a true man. And the noble 
symmetry and roundness of his character showed them all in 
beautiful proportion and in sublime perfection. I doubt whetlier 
the paltry thought of kingship and a crown ever crossed his 
mind until the degrading suggestion was intruded from without, 
and then it was simply treated with contempt and indifterence, 
as too mean a thing to company for a moment with the pure and 
lofty purposes of his soul. 

The formation of such a character, at such a crisis in the 
history of his country, was God's esj^ecial care, who works by 
fitting instrumentalities for the accomplishment of His will. 
That character was formed and lifted up to the contemplation of 
the world, to serve as the teaching example and the persuasive 
model for that and for all future irenerations of men. 

O 

I have just referred to that old world discipline by which 
Providence, in its slow and stately marcli, had prepared and 
furnished the elements of the American character. All of us 
are tamiliar with the millennial contest was-ed in England under 



THE UNION. 9 

successive dynasties, with clianging fortune, but with unchang- 
ing perseverance and determination, for civil freedom, and for 
comtUatlonal government. We know the incidents of that 
fiercer and more stirring battle, so gloriously fouglit on the same 
ground by the same ancestr}', for rehfjloxts freedom, for the 
right to think, for the power to hold communion with God our 
Father, on the terras wliich He has Himself prescribed. By 
tlie issue of that mighty struggle. Priestly Despotism, the most 
malign dominion to which the human soul for its ignorance and 
unfaithfulness has ever been subjected, was thrown off from 
them and from their children forever. The agitations and con- 
vulsions among the conquerors in this last contest, was indeed a 
shameful abuse of their newly acquired liberty. But this very 
abuse was overruled by the Almighty, to be the means of exer- 
cising and developing to their utmost capacity all tiie best pow- 
ers of noblest manhood. 

Then came the American part of the discipline by Avliich our 
countrymen were prepared for the mighty work which Provi- 
dence had assigned to them. A few adventurous spirits trans- 
ferred to this country the character, the freedom, the civil and 
municipal institutions, so nobly won at home. Here a wilder- 
ness was to be subdued ; treacherous savages watched, propi- 
tiated, conquered. Here an empire was to be founded, and the 
administration of a self-sustaining government to become the 
familiar duty of every gentleman. 

You see how God was working in history to form the genera- 
tion of true men who achieved your glorious revolution, and 
placed your free institutions upon an impregnable foundation. 

Let us turn now to those principles of government and of 
social order wiilch the race, so trained and prepared, recognized 
and vindicated as the tirm foundation of American liberty, and 
of the hopes of the world which spring from that liberty. 

All government is founded upon the imperfection of human 
nature. If all men were sufficiently intelligent and good, there 



10 THE UNION. 

^vould be no necessity for government ; for eveiy one performing 
perfectly his own duty in his own sphere, would most effectually 
promote the common good and the general happiness. But man 
is not so happily constituted. He is so selfish that, as the general 
rule at least, each one will pursue his own ends and gratify his 
own desires at the expense of the rights and happiness of his 
fellows. And he is so short-sighted that no one person can be 
trusted to determine absolutely for his own action the best means 
of promoting private or public prosperity. Hence it is necessary, 
not only for man's well-being, but for his very existence, that 
there should be placed over him a government, with large, con- 
troling, and stringent powers. These powers are otherwise called 
sovereignty ; and upon their right and proper exercise depend 
the welfare of the whole community, and the peace and happi- 
ness of each one of its members. 

In a simple government, the whole or nearly the whole of this 
immense power is lodged in a single depositary. In all former 
precedents, with the exception of the troubled but illustrious 
democracy of Athens, this depositary has been a single person, 
or a small body of nobles, or an armed soldiery. 

But tlie same vice of human nature which renders government 
necessary, demonstrates this to be a most injurious and oppress- 
ive form of government. For, if no man can safely be trusted 
with unlimited control over himself, much less can any man or 
body of men be trusted with unlimited control over others. 

Experience has given a melancholy confirmation to this teach- 
ing of right reason ; and, in the multiplied miseries and oppres- 
sions of despotism, proclaims that no one man, or body of men, 
has sufficient intellio-ence or sroodness to be entrusted with so 
much power. 

This experience of mankind has led, under the guidance of 
Divine Providence, to the gradual growth and consolidation of 
limited and complicated governments. The principle of these 
mixed governments is, that the vast powers necessary to consti- 



THE UNION. 11 

tutc an efficient eivil government shall be so divided between a 
number of distinct and independent depositaries, and the inter- 
ests and feelings of these several holders of the sovereign power 
shall be so various and contrariant, that they may check and 
restrain each other, when either wishes to do harm, and only 
combine and move harmoniously together, when they are striv- 
ing to carry out the legitimate purposes of government. 

The Roman Republic and the Constitutional i\Ionarchy of 
Great Britain were the grandest and the most beneficent illus- 
trations of this form of government, that the world had seen 
previous to the firm establishment of the American Constitution. 

The framers of the Federal Constitution undoubtedly intended 
to construct every part of their work upon this admirable prin- 
ciple. With the nature and happy efficacy of the principle, they 
were perfectly familiar by their knowledge of the British Consti- 
tution, and by their own personal experience in the working of 
the Colonial Governments. They tried, therefore, to incorporate 
the same beneficent provision into all the arrangements and de- 
tails of the Federal Government. Upon paper that Constitution 
is very intricate and complicated. The several powers embraced 
within the terms of the Constitution, are carefully separated from 
each other, and confided, as was supposed, to distinct and inde- 
pendent agencies ; making, to all appearance, a beautiful and 
eftective system of cheeks and balances. 

But the venerable framers of the Constitution entirely over- 
looked, in their estimate of tlie practical working of this seem- 
ingly complex system, one immense and inappreciable power, 
the operation of which reduces to nothing all the well-adjusted 
theoretical distinctions between the departments of the Federal 
Government, by the ease with which it over-balances them all. 
This preponderating and crushing element in our system, is the 
direct and immediate agency of the whole people in all the con- 
duct and administration of the government, ordinary as well as 
extraordinary. 



12 THE UNION. 

That Sovereignty resides ultimately in the people, is a prin- 
ciple which lies at the foundation, perhaps, of all governments ; 
certainly of all popular governments. 

The Cicar of Russia, disregarding the old formula of reigning 
" by the grace of God," professes to govern as the representative 
of the people — the Father of liis children. Louis Napoleon is 
emphatically a Democratic Sovereign. He is the sole and irre- 
sponsible exponent and executor of the popular will. This is 
the tenure by which he professes to hold his office. So true is it 
that anv SIMPLE government is necessarily a ruthless despotism, 
destructive of all human right and liberty. These examples 
show how a representative Democracy may be tlie most pure and 
stringent of Autocracies. 

But never before, unless a single Grecian city be an excep- 
tion, was there founded a system of government in which the 
ordinary powers and attributes of sovereignty were designed to 
be vested exclusively in the great body of the people, to be by 
them directly and habitually exercised in the ordinary adminis- 
tration of affairs. 

A variety of causes, have concurred to produce in tlus age and 
country a result which never could have occurred before; and 
which, without the influence of our example, never would have 
been dreamed of in other lands. The chief cause to Avhich this 
revolution is to be ascribed, is the wonder-working power of the 
Press, which carries the decision of every question directly to 
the tribunal of the wliole people. 

Docs the great fact which we have aimounccd in regard to the 
practical working of American institutions, require to be proved ? 
Are there any wiio can be so deceived by the power of a name, 
that they cannot discover the reality of things, because the names 
designed and fitted for the theoretical and paper system are con- 
tinued and applied to the actual and practical system ? When 
the greatest of Republics became the greatest and most despotic 
of Empires, not a single name or title ' was changed. This 



THE UNION. 13 

mighty revolution was eifected by the one solitary change, that 
all these titles and offices, Consuls, Censors, Tribunes, and all 
the rest, became thenceforth the expression of a migle will, the 
will of the once subordinate Imperator, instead of tlic expression 
of the distinct and independent wills of different and conflicting 
estates and persons. 

One fiict will furnish a fall illustration of the change that has 
passed upon a part of our system. The iirst officer of the gov- 
ernment was designed to be chosen by the matui-e wisdom of 
Electoral Colleges, composed of men selected from the body of 
the people on account of their experience, judgment, and integ- 
rity. So many separate and independent bodies, thus admirably 
constituted, were deemed to be the best possible provision for the 
safe and wise discharge of the most difficult and dangerous fea- 
ture of a republic, the election of a Chief Magistrate, It is well 
known that, under tlie actual working system, the Electoral Col- 
leges have never been anything but cumbrous and superfluous 
instruments for signifying to the central government the choice 
of the President, already made by the people in their primary 
assemblies. And it is very probable that the majority of the 
voters do not know that there is any such intermediate ma- 
chinery, composing a part of our institutions. The practical 
working of this provision is but a type of the change tliat has 
passed upon the whole system. 

The lower House of Congress, and the President, as the im- 
mediate representatives of the people, are at once prepared to 
register and execute the decrees of a popular majority. The 
Senate, by reason of its relation to what I conceive to be the 
only conservative feature of our political institutions, does yet, 
in some degree, fulfill the purpose and realize the theory of the 
Federal Constitution. For any act of Federal legislation there 
must be a concun-ence, not only of a popular majority, but of 
a majority of States as represented in that body. But tliis con- 
servative element will often prove to be unsubstantial and illu- 



14 THE UNION. 

soiy. For in any great agitation of the popular mind a few re- 
cusant Senators may easily be found who can be intimidated or 
bouglit. 

But, besides this fatal and easy resource, a thousand modes of 
oppression and injustice may be employed, under the instigation 
of some popular fancy or frenzy, in which a majority of States 
will eagerly concur with a majority of the people. The idea that 
this contingency can be prevented by maintaining a balance of 
power between certain interests, in a body which is continually 
changing its composition with the ever advancing population of 
the country, is the latest suggestion of political charlatanry. Our 
fathers did not commit the folly of building on the sand, of found- 
ing a government upon a shifting and uncertain basis. To make 
the integrity of the government dependent upon such an arbi- 
trary balance of power, in a representative body, is to suppose 
the human mind and the human race stationary, and unchange- 
able. It would be to arrest population, and knowledge, and opin- 
ion, and interest, at one certain point, and fix them there forever. 
The Constitution of the United States attempts no such flagrant 
violation of trath and reason. The recent demand for a new 
provision to that effect, under the title of "new Constitutional 
Guarantees," can only be regarded as another pretext for seducing 
the public mind into disloyalty to the Union. 

By many persons the Supreme Court is looked upon as the 
great conservative feature of our institutions. An Independent 
Judiciary is the great conservative feature of social and civil life. 
But it is in a very slight degree, if at all, ^ political institution. 
Its jurisdiction only embraces cases of forensic litigation, and it 
is utterly powerless beyond the mere rendition of a judgment or 
decree. The execution of that judgment remains with the repre- 
sentatives of the popular majority. 

So far, then, as the action of the Federal government alone is 
concerned, the majority of the people of the whole Union is the 
Sovereign power, the actual government of the United States; 



THE UNION. 



15 



and our system is, therefore, looking to that government alone, a 
Simple Democracy. 

It is liardly to be expected, although the language of some of 
liis courtiers and flatterers would intimate as much, that His 
^ilajesty, the Democracy, will be altogether exempt from the 
failings and vices which belong to other potentates, and which 
attach to poor human nature in all conditions, and especially in 
high and elevated stations. On the contrary, experience has 
amply proved that his Democratic Majesty has a quantum suffi- 
cit of these ordinary vices and failings of royalty. 

The most usual and the most fatal vice of royalty in its sim- 
ple and despotic forms, is the constant tendency to surrender 
itself blindly to the guidance of every vile and worthless fiivor- 
ite, who, to gain his Master's confidence, has first stooped to 
lick the dust from his Master's feet ; and who will carefully cul- 
tivate, and diligently pander to, all the monarch's basest pas- 
sions, that he may obtain the fearful power to sacrifice tlie dearest 
rights of men to the promotion of his own low, and mean, and 
miserable pui-poses. 

To this common fault of despotism, the Democratic Sovereign 
of these United States seems to be quite as much exix)sed as 
any other absolute monarch. It is true that in theory the ear of 
his Majesty is equally open to every description of counselor^ 
The honest and the dishonest portion of tlie public press, the 
high-minded statesman, and the corrupt politician, may upon 
equal terms approach the throne. But wliich of these two classes 
of counselors will be most regarded and most successful? Will 
it be the stem patriot, who coldly addresses the reason of his 
Sovereign, who preaches all the virtues, and talks about those 
dull abstractions, justice and right ? Or, will the supple courtier, 
who can lie, soothe, and flatter ; who will rouse by artful appeals 
the slumbering passions of his Master, and who will minister to 
the gratification of that Master's lowest appetites, be most apt 
to win his way to favor and to power? Let history and experi- 



16 THE UNION. 

ence fell. True it is, that sometimes the Democracy, like other 
Sovereigns, may be suddenly aroused from a long dream of secn- 
ritj and pleasure Ly the rugged realities of adverse fortune ; and 
for the moment he may rudely shake off the vile pests which 
have -vvooed Inm to his undoing. But these will be only transient 
and temporary triumphs of virtue and intelligence. The con- 
clusion of right reason, and of experience alike is, that a Simple 
Democracy will prove to be as destructive to freedom and to hap- 
piness as all the other simple and unmixed governments havei 
been. I do not state this invidiously. Our government is a 
Democracy, although not a simple one, and therefore, so far as 
its firm maintenance is concerned, I am a Democrat. Our Dem- 
ocratic institutions rest upon a firmer and broader basis than any 
of the rotten tyrannies of the old world. I state the fact of our 
actual condition in order that we may see our consequent duties 
and perform them. 

Tilost happily our government is not an unmixed one. In de- 
scribing the process by which all the powers of government have 
been absorbed in the absolute sovereignty of a numerical major- 
ity of the people of the United States, thereby making our gov- 
ernment a Simple Democracy, as dangerous to liberty as any 
other despotism, we have left unnoticed one principal feature of 
the American Constitution. The contemplation of that other 
feature changes the whole aspect of the case, and presents a con- 
servative clement which gives to the system its real character 
and its only chance of success and permanency. That other 
feature is the glorious FAcr, that State Soatereignty and Na- 
tional Sovereignty co-exist, and are the healthful equiv- 
alents OF EACH OTHER IN THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. All 
the powers necessary to complete sovereignty never were and are 
not now vested in the Goveimment or in the People of the Uni- 
ted States. Nor were the whole of these powers ever vested in 
the people of a single State of this Union, except for a bnef 
period, in the people of Texas. 



THE UNION. 17 

What the wise and venerable framers of tlie Federal Consti- 
tution were unable to accomplish in regard to the several depart- 
ments of that government, Divine Providence had already pre- 
pared for the American people, by the distribution of the powers 
of sovereignty between the Central government -^ the necessary 
expression of the original unity and nationality of the people — 
and the respective State governments, which had possessed and 
exercised a portion of these powers from the iirst settlement of 
the country. 

Real and enduring governments cannot be made to order, but 
must be a growth out of circumstances, history, and national 
character, in the progress of which human wisdom, and God's 
superintending care, may concur and work together for the con- 
summation of His merciful purpose in the happiness and eleva- 
tion of mankind. Thanks be to that distinguishing Providence, 
which has exalted our land and people in blessings and privi- 
leges above all the nations of the earth, we have never been sub- 
jected to the crushing despotism of a Simple Government, either 
Autocratic or Democratic. The whole Federal Constitution is 
'but one department of the government under which we live. 

The wisdom of our Fathers was shown, not so much in their 
constructions, as in their clear recognition of what God, working 
tlirough history, and upon national character, had already con- 
structed for them ; and in the care which they took for the per- 
petual maintenance and continued activity of that Divine work. 
That Divine provision, which the Constitution recognizes, and 
brino;s into livino; and constant action, consists of these two 
facts — that the American people have always been ONE NATION' 
under one common allegiance; and have always been divided 
into separate, and to some extent independent, sovereignties. 

The question has often been mooted, whether the Federal gov- 
ernment is the creature of the States, or whether the States de- 
rive then- power from the grants and permissions of the Federal 
Constitution. Neither of the parties to this issue can prevail, 
2 



18 THE UNION. 

for both the propositions are untrue. The people of the United 
States were always one people, and formed their own Federal 
Constitution. The States were always distinct governments, 
and exercised the powers which they now possess. The people 
of the whole Union and the States together organized the Fed- 
eral government. 

This division of the functions of government between indepen- 
dent depositaries, each of which possesses an inherent power to 
sustain itself, and to exercise its own rightful jurisdiction, con- 
stitutes a conservative element in our political system, the like 
to which in salutary efficiency has never been presented before 
in the history of nations. And it is the only permanent con- 
servative element in our political system. For without this, the 
only other apparent element of conservatism, the independence 
of the Judiciary, could be swept away by a single decree of the 
Democratic Sovereign. 

A glance at the history of the formation of the Constitution 
will show us how this great conservative element came to be 
firmly and permanently established in the Federal government 
as its one pervading and fundamental principle. 

The American Constitution is no closet work, framed to order? 
and realizing some beautiful theory of human riglits, and politi- 
cal perfection. Such things, like Plato's Republic, and Moore's 
Utopia, and tlic many Constitutions of the Abbe Sieyes, are 
incapable of application to the actual government of men. All 
real and effective government must be a growth out of the con- 
dition, character, and history of a people. Many of the framers 
of the Constitution had their own favorite theories of frovern- 
ment ; but none of these were adopted as the basis of the sys- 
tem they gave to the country. So far as theory was admitted 
into that instrument at all, it has already proved a failure. But 
the main fabric of the Constitution is something far more perma- 
nent and real. It is the wise adjustment, and patient and con- 
ciliatory reconciliation, of the actual facts, and conflicting inter- 



THE UNION. 19 

ests, and well established principles, of our previous condition. 

The two leading plans of government brought before the Con- 
stitutional Convention were called, respectively, the Virginia, and 
the New Jersey, plan. The first proposed simply a National 
government, the second a pure Confederation. Neither of these 
plans were mere theories. Each was the result of the most ma- 
tured and practical wisdom of the day, working upon the mate- 
rials furnished by the actual character and position of the coun- 
try. But each was one-sided and defective, because the human 
mmd is so. Neither one admitted and provided for all the facts 
and circumstances of the case. Each presented clearly, and 
made ample provision for, one class of fects and interests, but 
almost entirely ignored the other and conflicting class. Neither 
plan, therefore, could have worked successfully and efficiently, 
even if it had been accepted by the Convention and the people. 

The plan of a Confederation ignored the most material fact 
of the whole case — that the people of the United States were 
One, in their origin, not only, but had always been one people, 
in their history and in their allegiance. The National scheme 
left too much out of view the other great and material fact — 
that, in subordination to this unity and common allegiance, each 
State had always been a separate and independent power, pos- 
sessing the ordinary machinery, and exercising the ordinary func- 
tions of government. The Colonization of the country under 
separate Charters, but subject to a common allegiance, had 
produced this result. 

When the opposing facts and interests represented by these 
two schemes of government met together in the Convention, it 
was found that all of them were too real, too vital, too energetic, 
to be destroyed or neglected ; but must of necessity be accepted, 
and placed in their rightful position of power and authority in 
the new government. The advocates of each scheme were, there- 
fore, at first disappointed ; but they soon found that such a de- 



20 THE UNION. 

feat was the triumph of truth and reality, and, therefore, their 
own "best and most glorious triumph. 

The latest historian of the Constitution does not seem to have 
apprehended fully both sides of the great truth which is so amply 
set forth by all the facts which he details. He says in one place : 
" The Colonies had no direct political connection with each other 
before the Revolution commenced;" and in another place : "We 
have seen the American people, divided into separate and isolated 
communities, without nationality, except such as resulted from a 
general community of origin." — Citrtls, Vol. I, p. 7, p. 383. 

But, surely, this common origin not only, but one common 
allegiance, one language, one generous feeling of loyalty to the 
same throne, a common sense and habit of dependence on the 
lyiother country for defense and protection, the universal recogni- 
tion of a common government in all the highest attributes of 
sovereignty, constituted at all times a Common Nationality, 
most real, pervading, and effective. James Wilson, of Penn- 
sylvania, stated the case in the Convention much more accurately. 
"Dming the war lie had always considered the States, with re- 
spect to that war, as forming one community ; and he did not 
admit the idea that when the Colonies became independent of 
Great Britain they became independent of each other." — Curtis. 

Many of our philosophic Statesmen, misled by the recent form- 
ation of the present form of the Federal government, call that 
government "a creature of the several independent States that 
consented to it," and transfer to the American Union the old ex- 
ploded dream of a Social Contract. They thereupon take it for 
granted, that, upon the failure of that instrument, supreme and 
uncontrolled sovereignty will revert to the several States. 

These gentlemen forget that the States never possessed Su- 
preme Sovereignty, and that our existence as one people, living 
under a common allegiance, and subject to the same Common 
Law, is a fact parallel with the State Sovereignity, and coeval 
with it. 



THE UNION. 21 

Tlieform of the General government, adopted in 1787, is nec- 
essarily, by its very object and purpose, one of limited and strictly 
defined powers ; because it is just the mode employed to give 
force and expression to that previously subsisting UxiTi', leaving 
the State sovereignty and organization, as they had been afore- 
time, unimpaired and untouched. 

The Union, therefore, is a Fact before and above the new 
form of government which is its -present practical expression. 
That Union is as old as the States, and must co-exist with them, 
and so modify and influence their sovereignty. 

The Revolution, in separating us from Great Britain, left us 
still One People. The Revolutionary government assumed and 
acted upon that fact, and took the place of the government that 
had been renounced. The Articles of Confederation, subse- 
quently adopted, ignored that fact, under the influence of theory, 
and was one grand mistake. It, therefore, broke down at once, 

an utter and ifmominious iailure. But even this abortive effort 

o 

at a government formed a substantive pai-t of the growth of the 
Constitution, by demonstrating, at the right time, its own intrin- 
sic insufficiency and worthlessness. 

After long and earnest consultation and debate, the Constitu- 
tional Convention, with profound wisdom, adopted as the foun- 
dation of the American system of government these tivo great 
facts of our history and condition : the separate existence, and 
partial sovereignty, of the several States, and the Union of the 
people of these States into one mighty Nation, under one com- 
mon government. 

Like all the works of God, this aiTangement of His Provi- 
dence consists of apparently conflicting elements. The hamiony 
of the universe is the mutual antagonism of opposing forces, 
rightly ordered. The harmony, the perpetuity, and the power of 
American institutions depend upon the just antagonism of these 
two opposing forces ; the separate sovereignty of the States, and 
the Union of the States under one government into one nation. 



22 THE UNION. 

The wisdom of our fathers did not invent this wondrously com- 
plicated system. Nor could they have taken the first step to- 
wards the execution of such a plan. The whole design came 
from the wisdom and care of Ilim, who so ordered our national 
growth, that we were at all times one people, and likewise, at all 
times unchr the direction of separate local governments. The 
profound wisdom of our fathers was shown in their recognition 
of the wisdom and goodness of God in making this provision for' 
the welfare and for the liberties of His people ; and in the care 
wdiich they took to maintain and perpetuate it in the whole 
frame-work of the government, 

Of all the checks and balances in the written Constitution, 
this is the only one that survives with any living and effective 
power. This not only lives, but it is as vital and efficient as 
ever. The reason is, that this provision is not only a part of 
the written Constitution, but it lives in the hearts of the people, 
and in the whole practical working of American society. The 
fact is another pregnant illustration of the principle that real 
governments cannot be manufactured ; but must be a growth 
out of the condition, circumstances, history, and character of a 
people. God, in His wise Providence, so ordered our growth as 
to give us this system. He gave it, not as an abstract principle, 
but as a living fact of our national existence. The franners 
of the Constitution found it a reality, and fixed it in that in- 
strument, as the foundation of the whole fabric. It is this 
great and unprecedented feature of our institutions which 
saves this Government from becoming a simple despotism, 
as crushing and oppressive as the worst tyrannies that have 
made the earth to groan. In the preservation of this sys- 
tem is garnered up the last hope of mankind for liberty and 
happiness. To attempt its destruction, to annihilate the 
Sovereignty of the States, or to dissolve the Union of the 
States, is Treason, not only against the actual Government, 
but treason against American liberty, treason against social 



THE -UNION. 23 

order, treason against the highest hopes and aspirations of 
humanity, treason against the God of heaven who commit- 
ted to us this inestimable trust for ourselves, and for the 
world. 

The little creatures, the spawn of a long period of tran- 
quil prosperity, who are continually prating, in the North, 
and in the South, about a dissolution of the Union, at each 
passage of the Government whicli vexes into a miniature 
storm the undisciplined passions of their tiny souls, simply 
do not know what they are talking about. The people in 
the majesty of a virtuous indignation should send these mis- 
chievous, overgrown children home, and set them to work 
at something the}' can understand. 

The very principle of our complex Government is founded 
upon the postulate, that there may be at any time attempted 
wrong, and impending injury, from one side or the other. 
But the conservative remedy is, that the nation in its aggre- 
gate capacity, and each State as a separate commonwealth, 
possesses, in independent integrity, all the powers and func- 
tions of a self-sustaining Government. The result is that 
either party is at once and effectually checked and restrained 
when it goes beyond its sphere, and undertakes to execute its 
purpose of oppression and wrong. The experience of the 
country so flir has proved, and as long as we are capable of 
liberty the same thing will be true, that neither party can 
successfully oppress and injure the other. 1'lie action of 
each Government in its own sphere is too constant, too regu- 
lar, and too decisive, to be successfully overborne by the 
irregular and usurped action of the other in the same 
sphere. The aggressor, whether the Federal Government, or a 
particular State, will inevitably, under such a system, be com- 
pelled to retreat within the limits of the Constitution. 

But a dissolution of the Union would he the destruction for- 
ever of this only conservative element in our political system ; 



24 THE UNION. 

and each of tlie parts would tlien Le aLandoned to that simple 
government, which, in any possible form, must be a despotism, 
intolerable, and destructive of all human right, liberty, and 
nobleness. The lightning flash may at last strike and shiver 
into many pieces the noble oak which has grown and hardened 
and battled against the fierce elements for a thousand years. 
You may find, and even gather up these chan-ed and blackened 
atoms. But the pride of the forest is no more. The dissevered 
fragments have no vitality, or beauty, or self-sustaining power. 
So will it be when the anger of Heaven, for the sins of the 
people, shall rend asunder this glorious^Union, which is no fabri- 
cated expedient, but a Divinely ordered growth, meeting all the 
exigencies of our position, and laden with the rich fruit of un- 
numbered blessings to us and to mankind. 

These appear to me to be the abstract principles which lie at 
the foundation of the American system of Constitutional liberty. 
Now a fearful crisis has arisen to test these principles. If the 
principles are worth anything they will meet the test, if the 
people but understand and apply them. 

The people of one portion of this Confederated Republic, 
moved by a distempered fanaticism, have become terribly con- 
science-stricken on account of the supposed sins of their fellow- 
citizens in other States of the Republic. And they tell us that 
they can have no peace of conscience, and no quietness of soul, 
until tliey put away from us this great sin. 

I do not stop here to classify the keepers of these tender con- 
sciences, who are so unduly burdened Avith the weight of other 
people's sins. The murderous insurrectionists of Harper's 
Ferry ; the wordy fire-brands, who, in the pulpit, on the plat- 
form, and through the press, kindled this devouring flame in 
braver bosoms than tlieir own ; and the milder advocates of 
simple argument and moral suasion ; are all alike guilty of this 
one great wrong. They have undertaken to control and regu- 
late a matter with which they have no sort of connection, Provi- 



THE UNION. 25 

dential, Political, or Social. Their conduct is a gross offence 
against the American Constitution, against National Comity, 
against the established principles which regulate the intercourse 
of civilized peoples. 

The prelence that they are concerned, because it is a 
national crime, is a miserable plea indeed, when the nature 
of the thing itself, and the Constitution in correspondence 
with the truth of the case, deliberately and of purpose, 
leaves this whole subject to the sole control and discretion 
of the people of the several States. As to the common 
Territories, as the Federal Government cannot create, so 
neither can it destroy, the rights of person or property. 

But this pseudo moral and religious fanaticism, like all 
kindred fanaticisms, cannot be reasoned with. It must run 
its course and die, like its innumerable predecessors. All 
that sensible men can do in the premises is to take care that 
the madness does the least possible mischief while it lasts. 

Now let us suppose the worst : that a controlling majority' 
of the people become abolitionized, and determine to use 
the Federal Government as the instrument of perpetrating 
their foll3\ " Then we must dissolve the Union," comes up 
as the despairing cry of multitudes of true but despondent 
patriots. " Then the Union is already dissolved," shout with 
an exultant laugh, the traitors who have been plotting this 
dire consumm;ition for years gone by. 

Fellow-citizens, this would be to act like the child who 
throws his ball into the fire because its unexpected rebound 
had hit him in the face. Have we not already ascertained 
that, if our liberty and our rights existed merely by grace 
of the paper Constitution, a despotic majority would treat 
them with as little ceremony as the paper on which thej'' 
were written, and would trample upon them with as much 
indifference as it would crumple that paper? 

The peculiar and the sole value of our institutions is^ 



26 



THE UNION. 



that our rights and liberties are not at the mercy or the 
sufferance of a corrupt or frantic majority, or of any ma- 
jority. The existence of the State governments, with all 
the attributes of Sovereignty, and with all the incidents and 
implements of sovereignty in full and constant exercise, 
with all the departments of a complete government in habit- 
ual action, is the real and effective guaranty of the Con- 
stitution, and of American right and liberty. 

Let the Federal Government attempt its wrong, and it 
will be met by a resistance so certain and so commanding 
that it will never dare to encounter the issue. Reason, and 
argument, and justice and right, are very feeble things when 
urged by the defenceless and the oppressed. But from the 
lips of those who have arms in their hands and hearts to 
use them ; from strong governments, who can raise and 
move armies, they are very powerful things. They cau 
then reach and control even the most senseless of all sense- 
less things, religious fanaticism. 

But dissolve the Union, and where are we then? The 
Governor of Virginia gave us the other day a significant and 
suggestive answer to this question, by the statement of a 
single fact. He tells the Legislature of that State that 
Canada is the rendezvous of all the abolition plotters, and 
the depot of their oppressive armaments. 

Ah, well ! Canada is now five hundred miles away. Let 
Canada skirt the borders of the Potomac and the Ohio, let 
the whole country from that line to the frozen ocean be in- 
habited by hostile nations, at once maddened by fanaticism 
and stimulated by national rivalry, and none of the battle- 
grounds of the world will furnish any parallel to the mise- 
ries which these nations would inflict upon each other. Ev- 
•ery eminence would be crowned by a fortress, and every 
nook watched by its military police. 

And what would become of the civil and political liberty 



THE UNION. 27 

Tor ihe fancied security of which we had made this wanton 
and ruthless sacrifice? 

Our fathers, in their simplicity, or in their wisdom, thought 
that large standing armies and republican institutions were 
incompatible. Supposing that they might possibly have been 
mistaken in that, although you will not think they were, 
what would each fragment of the Union be but a Simple 
government, the uncliecked domination of a despotic ma- 
jority, as long as the attempt at a Republic was continued ; 
and then the unrestrained will of some other form of op- 
pressive despotism ? 

Let us never forget that free government, unprotected by a 
conflict of self-sustaining interests, is a Myth : never yet re- 
alized, never to be realized, while man retains his present 
corrupt and selfish nature. 

All history teaches this lesson. The lesson is being taught 
every day in our own Gountry. Suppose that all the rights 
and interests of the people of Ne > -York Island were at the 
mercy of the City government, that there was no State 
government, and no Federal government to share the Sov- 
ereignty, and to check and restrain the Municipal Authori- 
ties. To what other form of despotism would not the peo- 
ple there recur, rather than submit to the oppression and 
injustice of that vile c iricature of free government? 

The history of the French nnd English monarchies ;eaches 
emphatically the lesson I have been trying to inculcate. 
France became a Despotic Monarchy because the wily Louis 
XI destroyed the power of the great Barons, before the 
Bourgeois, the Commons, had attained sufficient influence 
and authority to check and control the Executive power. 
And so the King became absolute, and his sole will was 
law, and the people and the nobles alike were trampled un- 
der the heel of the oppressor. The towns had, indeed, just 
begun to exercise some municipal rights when this change in 



28 ■ YHE UNION. 

ihe ancient constitution took place, and llie only shadow of 
libert}^ that rennained to that country, for many ages, was 
found in the traditional prerogative of those Civic Corpo- 
rations. 

In England, on the contrary, the great nobles retained 
their power and influence, almost overshadowing the throne, 
and effectually resisting its usurping tendencies, until the 
greater Third Estate, the glorious Commons, rose to its le- 
gitimate might, and said to- the Monarch, Thus far shalt 
thou go, and no further. 

The American division of power between those two great 
realities, the Federal Government and the State Govern- 
ments, is infinitely better than King, Lords, and Commons. 
It is the last and highest expression of the loving-Jcindness of 
God in providing for the social and civil freedom of manhind. 

Such a conjuncture as that at which we have now arrived 
is the very exigency which this complicated and heaven-de- 
vised sy&tem was designed to meet. Was the Union in- 
tended to be a plaything, lo' be toyed with and enjoyed in 
ease and luxury, while all things were prapitious; and to 
be cast aside as worthless just so soon as its right work- 
ing calls for the exercise of high intelligence and noble man- 
hood ? Why, we have luxuriated so long and so securely, 
under the protection of this best of all the governments on 
the earth, that we have neglected and almost forgotten the 
Hrst duty of every State, to keep always in effective organi- 
zation its citizen soldiery, an armed force, sufficient to sup- 
press insurrection, or to repel invasion. 

Let the present crisis but arouse the people to their duty. 
Let each State and its Authorities awake to a due sense of 
the responsibilities of their position. Let them take care 
that neither the Commonwealth nor the Union shall be 
harmed. The power they possess is held in trust for the 
preservation of the Union, and not for its destruction. 



THE UNI-ON. 29 

With a right preparation for tlie full and effective dis- 
charge of this part of the duty, which every State owes 
to itself and to the country, all danger to ihe State or to 
the Union will be most surely avoided. To be ready at all 
times to resist aggression, and when wrongful aggr-ession 
comes, from any quarter, to meet it, is the normal state of 
the American system of government. To be always strong, 
and ready to preserve our rights and the Union together, is 
the palladium of American liberty. The silly, childish, and 
worse than Turkish expedient, of dissolving the Union, 
and blotting out our country from amo?ig the nations, whenever 
its government does not work to our satisfaction, is the mis- 
erable suggestion of ignorance or of wickedness. 

If this government is to cease just as soon as the pas- 
sions and the evil purposes of men bring it into trial-, then, 
indeed, it is weaker and meaner than the worst forms of 
Eastern despotism, where oppression and revolution are the 
only alternatives that balance each other, and v/here both 
concur in crushing and despoiling the people, making life a 
burden, and all nobleness an impossibility. Is such a worth" 
less thing as this the glorious work which we have been 
holding up to the gaze of an admiring workl for three quar- 
ters of a century? 

The American system of government is not that decep- 
tive and miserable abortion which this Disunion fanaticism 
would represent it. Its wise distribution of power between 
separate sovereignties provides at once and effectually for 
the preservation of Liberty and of the Constitution. Re- 
sistance to usurpation, a struggle for the maintenance of the 
Constitution, is not Revolution. When our fathers first took 
up arms against the tyranny of Great Britain they did not 
contemplate Revolution. They fought for the maintenance 
of the British Constitution, and for their rights as British 
subjects- It was only after the contest had been long and 



30 THE UNION. 

bloody, and all hope of reconciliation had passed, that the 
Declaration of Independence, and the Revolution came, 
American Liberty and the American Constitution are insep- 
arably bound together. Destroy that wonderfully adjusted 
system which a bounteous Providence has bestowed upon 
the people of this country, and Liberty will soon be but a 
mocking and a galling name. 

God and our fathers have already given to the American 
people the most perfect provision for the protection of hu- 
man right and liberty that the world has ever seen. The 
Federal Government, representing the sovereignty of the 
nation, and the State governments, representing the sover- 
eignty of each State, in that wondrous combination which 
Divine and human wisdom have concurred in producing, 
present a more real and effectual guard against oppression, 
while all the legitimate purposes of government are fully 
provided for, than was ever effected before by any division 
of power between separate Estates of the realm. 

This provision is not a mere paper Constitution. It is a 
real and substantive thing, the result of our actual condi- 
tion and history. It is a "power ordained of God" most 
manifestly, for His providence brought it into being, and 
the highest human wisdom has gratefully accepted the 
blessing, and sought with assiduous care to guard the ines- 
timable treasure. 

The principle of this glorious provision, let me again re- 
mind you, is, that the Federal Government can execute its 
own laws by its own sovereign authority, while its jurisdic- 
tion is restricted to a limited range of subjects. The State 
governments by an equal sovereignty execute their laws 
over a much larger range of the ordinary subjects of legis- 
lation. Thus each government is in the constant and hnbit- 
ual exercise of sovereign power. Tn ordinary governments 
there is no resource against oppression but individual resist- 



THE UNION. 31 

ance, or the irregular, feeble, and injurious expedient of 
conspiracy and rebellion. Bui in the American Constitu- 
tion the attenfipted oppression of the stronger central gov- 
ernment can be met at once and efTectually by the organ- 
ized resistance of an actual working government, just as 
sovereign and just as legitimate as the usurping power. 
The theoretical right of every man to maintain his liberty 
and to resist oppression is thus clothed with all the sanctity 
of a national act, and armed with all the power of a pre- 
pared and legitimate government. And this is the very 
highest guarantee and protection that human right and 
liberty can have. 

Human wisdom cannot get beyond this. You cannot in- 
vent a system that will work itself smoothly along without 
ever calling in aid human responsibility. The " ultima 
ratio" is the necessary condition of all right. The perfec- 
tion of our system is that it clothes that condition with 
effective and salutary power. 

The fathers of the Republic understood all this very well, 
and therefore upon the first flagrant instance of unconstitu- 
tional and oppressive legislation by the Federal Govern- 
ment, the States of Virginia and Kentucky, in 179S-9, at 
once announced their determination to exercise their sover- 
eign authority in resistance to that legislation; and they 
called upon the oilier State governments to do the same 
thing. This determination was accompanied wiih this 
plain and distinct declaration : " That the General Assem- 
bly of Virginia doth unequivocally express a firm resolution 
to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United 
States, and the Constitution of this State, against every 
aggression, either foreign or domestic." 

These men of nerve and intellect knew very well the 
stern arbitrament to which they were appealing for the 
maintenance of their liberties, and they knew that that 



32 THEUNION. 

arbitrament was the ultimate and onlv sanction of all hu- 
man right. But they just as well understood and fully 
appreciated the persuasive and effective power of that 
" ultima ratio," when applied by sovereign States and 
working governments. 

A generation later the leading gentlemen of South Caro- 
lina took up these same resolutions, and put upon them the 
fanciful interpretation of Peaceable Nullification and 
Peaceable Secession. Mr. Madison, the author of the 
Virginia resolutions, indignantly repudiated the construc- 
tion ; and Gen. Jackson fairly drove it out of sight. Now 
again these gentlemen are trying to delude the South into 
the foolish scheme of Peaceable Secession — the right of 
any State, at its sole will and discretion, to destroy this 
Government, to take away the United States of America 
from the map of the world and from the family of nations. 
The eagerness with which the Harper's Ferry outrage was 
seized upon by these men as the pretext for so vile a prop- 
osition, is a melancholy proof that the delusive dream which 
has been so long indulged in South Carolina of leading a 
Southern Confederacy has thoroughly debauched the popu- 
lar mind, and produced a fanaticism parallel to that of John 
Brown and his associates and instigators. 

I rejoice to see, in the dignified and patriotic proceedings 
of this Legislature, a very different spirit — a spirit of stern 
rebuke to traitors of every clime, of every section. And 
surely it is time that we should all stand upon our manhood 
and upon our loyalty, and rally to the defence and vindica- 
tion of the Constitution and of the country. What good 
and precious thing in this world can be preserved without 
cost and sacrifice, and the exercise of all high and manly 
qualities! Is it the part of true manhool, of decent cour- 
age, of respectable firmness, to abandon and throw away a 
glorious gift of Providence, which has brought unnumbered 



T H E U N 1 N . 33 

blessings to us, and promises incalculable good to our pos- 
terity to the latest generation, just as soon as the retention 
of that gift calls for effort, and self-denial, and strength of 
purpose? Because fanatics rave and baser panderers to 
their folly threaten, shall we ingloriously cast away our 
heritage, and fly to the covert of some imaginary protection ? 
Is this the counsel to give to the sons of our sires? Then 
their daughters shall rebuke the insult and cry shame upon 
the cowardly suggestion. 

When a sectional majority shall attempt to wrong us, let 
every Southern State say, without bluster, but with the 
calm possession of conscious right and strength, " We 
intend to preserve our rights and this Union together. You 
shall not touch the one, you shall not destroy the other." 
That voice, firmly uttered, would find a response in mil- 
lions of fraternal and patriot hearts in the North. The 
treasonable speeches of gasconading politicians in the South 
have given to Black-Republicanism all its moral force, and 
are keeping alive the fanaticism by which they were ex- 
cited. 

I have heretofore allowed for the worst possible state of 
the case, in order fairly to test the principles I have been 
advocating. I have supposed the North to be thoroughly 
abolitionized. But that is not true, and never will be, if 
the Southern States are true to themselves, and to the dig- 
nity and responsibility of their position. 

Unfortunatel}'', most of the Representatives of both sec- 
tions in Congress, the little men who shake their fists in 
each other's faces, are painfully and hopelessly incompetent 
to the stern requirements of their exalted station. They 
have done infinite mischief already, and may do that wjjich 
can never be repaired, unless the good sense and right feel- 
ing of the country rally to the rescue, and repudiate their 
conduct. In that good sense and right feeling I confide, 
3 



34 



THE UNION, 



The people are not prepared to destroy their country, or to 
consent to its destruction. Ages of sacrifice and effort 
made it what it is, and sacrifice and effort shall not be 
wanting to preserve and perpetuate it. 

Men sometimes talk as if the Union was created by the 
Federal Government, and subsisted by virtue of its pro- 
visions. We have seen that this is historically untrue. 
The Union is coeval with the colonization of the countr}^ 
The Federal Government is but the present conventional 
expression of the previous Union, and the instrument by 
which that Union accomplishes its beneficent purpose. 
Take away the fanatical disunionists, North and South, and 
there is not a citizen of the United States whose patriotic 
feelings do not correspond to this historical fact. There 
is not a citizen who does not sav and feel, the United 
States is my country. Not Massachusetts, not Virginia, 
not Kentucky, but the United States. Each citizen 
loves the State of his birth, but he loves his country too, 
and the whole Union is that country. Here, again, the 
combined patriotism, loyalty, and allegiance, correspond 
precisely with the complex relations which constitute the 
j)cculiarity and tlie glory of American institutions. 

I ihinlc it has been amply proved that American liberty 
depends upon the preservation of those complex relations 
which spring from the combination of the Federal and Stale 
Sovereignties. Who then will dare to calculate the value 
of this Union? Human faculties are not competent to that 
calculation. The destinies of this continent; the freedom 
and the happiness of the myriads who are to people this 
land in all coming time are involved in the preservation of 
the Union. The hopes and the aspirations of mankind, 
looking to us for example and encouragement, depend upon 
the preservation of the Union. 

And are all these mighty interests to be tamely sacrificed 



THE UNION. 35 

to the stupid fanaticism of one set of miserables, and to the 
mean ambition or cowardly treachery of another? Forbid 
it, Americans! Forbid it, ye true-hearted men of every 
name and party ! Let it be the glory of Kentucky now to 
be the first to come to the rescue of the American Consti- 
tution. May every child of this good Commonwealth rush 
boldly into the breach, and swear that the Union shall be 
preserved. The lofty traditions of your patriotic State, the 
generous devotion to country which you learned from your 
mothers, the memory of all the noble and sainted dead, who 
left you their spirit and their example, urge you to this re- 
solve. 

I should be false to you and to myself if I stopped here: 
if I did not remind you that there must be an element of 
stability and heallhfulness in the social body as well as in 
the body politic. No form of free government can be ad- 
ministered unless by a people worthy of such a blessing, and 
capable of such a trust. 

Relisrion is that essential element in the constitution of 
society without which society could hardly exist at all, and 
certainly could rise to no form of dignity or power. Reli- 
gion is the foundation of all morality, the sanction of all 
•law, the creator of all civilization, the, principle of ail high 
and elevated character. True religion alone can teach men 
to look above themselves for a law which is controlling and 
paramount ; for a Will to which the caprices of opinion 
and the impulses of passion must be alike submissive. 

Very different from this conception of religion is the pseu- 
do religious and moral fanaticism that has brought upon the 
country so many evils. The Supreme Deity which these 
men worship is the sublime Ego — the I, myself. To this 
Divinity they bow down in reverent adoration in all his 
changes and phases of opinion, fancy, and sentiment. It is 
a significant fact that the leaders of the Abolition crusade 



36 THE UNION. 

first renounced the Church of the living God ; and then, in 
following up their fancy, seek to overturn the Constitution 
of their country because that is in their way ; and at last 
many of them, for the sanae reason, make the Bible the ob- 
ject of their bitterest scorn and foulest abuse. 

My Countrymen, stand by the old Bible, and the old 
Faith, and the old Constitution, and let this be your motto : 
Religion, and Union, and Liberty are our heritage, 

AND WE will transmit THEM TO OUR CHILDREN. 



